Breaking Down Barriers In The Customer Journey By Accelerating Digital Transformation

The market and consumer needs are constantly in a state of flux. With increased marketing messages and other stimuli demanding our attention, the human mind is distracted 47% of the day, requiring every business to engage their target customers in new ways with digital technology. But technology is only one piece of the puzzle.

Customer expectations have driven the changes we’re currently seeing. Since every experience with a customer impacts their overall perception of a brand, taking an approach that puts them at the center of business operations is a wise move. In an HBR survey, 40% of respondents say customer experience is their top priority for digital transformation. 

By increasing efficiency, reducing waste and errors, and offering new ways to achieve results, business leaders can take advantage of technological advances to ease and reduce the barriers customers may face. Ultimately giving customers better service, increased value, and an improved experience of your brand through the power of technology.

Break Barriers With A Seamless Experience

Digital technologies improve day-to-day business operations in various ways, from creating a smooth transition into remote and hybrid work to providing effective work practices via facial recognition. However, the most important operation is the customer experience. Buyers will run away if the product itself has friction, especially when it comes to banking. 

According to Jim Marous, co-publisher of The Financial Brand, unless a financial institution can open a new account or complete a new loan application in less than five minutes, the potential for the consumer to abandon the account opening increases to as much as 60% or more. As a result, companies with banking capabilities are realizing the demand for better banking experiences—and some are taking action. Digital lending platforms like MeridianLink have penetrated these barriers by ensuring the speed of the tech matches the speed of the consumer demand. Clients can quickly turn a traditional transactional experience into a transformational one with seamless integrations.

What If the Barrier Is Systemic and Societal?

Systemic and societal barriers have left underserved communities with less access to wealth and fewer resources to generate it. While these consumers may not be the obvious customers that financial institutions and other businesses are targeting—in many cases, they should be. The onus to correct systemic and societal inequity shouldn’t fall to the consumers most affected. The financial services community, non-profit organizations, and schools need to be at the forefront of actively engaging these communities, providing information, resources, and materials, and helping them make the system work for them.

Experian has been doing the work to give back to multiple communities by allowing rent and streaming service payments to help increase credit scores with Experian Boost. This doesn’t just raise a credit score; it creates a tangible difference that can help a renter become a homeowner and more. 

Streamline The Journey With Innovative Tech

Speed is central to the concept of “frictionless experiences.” Market agility and flexibility have become increasingly essential for businesses to adapt to shifting conditions. This can’t be done without technology augmenting daily processes and giving teams more time to create innovative products faster.

Speed makes all the difference when it comes to giving consumers what they want, especially in science, where the difference between two years and ten years to create medicine isn’t just a gold star for profitability—but lives saved. For example, scientists at Dotmatics, a leader in R&D scientific software, engaged with the gaming community to inspire a machine-learning approach to flow cytometry. In collaboration with the team behind the spaceship-based multiplayer game EVE Online, Dotmatics Vice President and Research Director Dr. Ryan Brinkman has led an initiative to enable gamers to fight various diseases, beginning with COVID-19. 

By galvanizing thousands of willing gamers to train with data the community performed  hundreds of years of effort through gamification. As a result data will be freely available to the scientific community to enable open science. This opens the door to even faster, less expensive, and more significant medical breakthroughs. 

With speed comes automation, and for businesses selling services or events online that require a more intelligent payment structure beyond a one-time purchase, customers often balk at the billing step. Traditional billing is built for a mass market—not to serve individual customer needs. Mass market structures may be cheap and easy to manage, but they do little to personalize the experience for individuals. A rigid payment channel can be the difference between keeping a loyal customer and seeing them look for other, more flexible options. This is a barrier that Regpack is helping overcome. 

Automated billing platforms with highly customizable features—like installment plans and flexibility in payment type and currency—can help business owners overcome the billing barrier and grow their revenue. Regpack reports that its customers have seen up to 30% more revenue and a drop of 35% in account receivables by using the highly customizable billing platform that accommodates subscriptions, auto-billing, installments, event management, merchandising, discounts, and more. By using a platform you can set and forget, businesses can save an average of 60 hours per month.

In today’s fast-moving environment, businesses must use the most innovative technologies and new ideas to their maximum efficiency. When 62 to 90% of purchasing decisions are made on color alone, depending on the item, it’s crucial to ensure your organization not only has top-of-the-line products and services but the means to over-deliver and create a difference for customers. Businesses’ commitment to innovation must be intentional to continue to break down barriers and offer the best experiences for every consumer.

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This post was authored by an external contributor and does not represent Benzinga's opinions and has not been edited for content. This content contains sponsored advertising content and is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.